1. Bionic Hand – an Overview

Programming and controlling the motion

The target position for motors of a bionic hand is set by a microcontroller – a small “computer” with a software inside. 

There are several important things how the software controls the motion: 

• the program is repeated almost endlessly (e.g. until a special condition is met or power supply is switched off); 
• the program checks the mio-sensor (a muscle sensor) to know when to start pulling string (and which one); 
• if we know in advance what object we would like to take by our bionic hand, then we can instruct the motor about the target position; 

^{Figure 8. Bionic hand holding an object} 

• In most of cases the shape of an object is not known, then we need another sensor at the end of a finger to allow force be checked, not to squeeze the object in our bionic hand. 

  ^{Figure 9. Force sensors placed at fingers‘ end}